Substituting a favorite password value entered into a field of an online form with a specific password value

ABSTRACT

A system for automatically completing fields in online forms, such as login forms and new user registration forms, which employs a Master Cookie File containing sets of records associated with the user, his or her accounts or web sites, and registered values associated with form tags (e.g. username, password, address, email, telephone, etc.). When the user encounters another form, the MCF is automatically searched for matching values and form tags, primarily from the same account or web site, or alternatively from other accounts or sites. A flowing pop-up menu is displayed nearby the form fields from which the user can select values to automatically complete the form. Automatic account information updating, value expiration management, mapping of favorite values, and sharing of values are optional, enhanced functions of the invention.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS (CLAIMING BENEFIT UNDER 35U.S.C. 120)

This is a continuation application of U.S. patent application Ser. No.10/942,418, filed on Sep. 16, 2004, by Gregory Jensen Boss, et al.

FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT STATEMENT

This invention was not developed in conjunction with anyFederally-sponsored contract.

MICROFICHE APPENDIX

Not applicable.

INCORPORATION BY REFERENCE

The related patent application Ser. No. 10/942,418, filed on Sep. 16,2004, by Gregory Jensen Boss, et al., is hereby incorporated byreference in its entirety, including all figures.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This is a continuation application of U.S. patent application Ser. No.10/942,418, filed on Sep. 16, 2004, by Gregory Jensen Boss, et al. Thisinvention relates to technologies for managing registered informationfor users of online accounts, and especially to technologies for fillingand completing fields in electronic forms.

2. Background of the Invention

As the Internet has grown in popularity, and as it has become accessibleto many individuals through private “home” computers, company computers,and Internet-enabled mobile devices such as Personal CommunicationsSystems (“PCS”) wireless telephones and wireless-networked PersonalDigital Assistants (“PDA”), literally thousands of service providershave deployed websites which require users to create an “account” withthem. These web sites provide customized news, investment information,travel services, messaging services, genealogy mapping, classmatefinding, online shopping, electronic banking, insurance claimsmanagement, and literally thousands more options, all from theconvenience of the user's home, desk, or mobile device.

With so many users employing the Internet as a way to manage personaldata and household financial information, consumers redundantly registernumerous pieces of vital account information with various companies eachday, often to gain access to these free services or subscriptions. Thisinformation often includes actual user's name, an account username,address, social security number, telephone numbers, email addresses, andeven personal profile information such as gender, birth date, brandpreferences, vocation, hobbies, food preferences, etc. Many sites alsoeither assign a password to each new user, or allow the user to select apassword within some constraints, such as minimum character length.Typing or entering repetitive information in this manner is not onlytedious, but also drastically reduces the customer acceptance process.

As an individual's account information can be accessed via the Internet,more companies encourage their consumers to go paperless to reduceoverhead costs and provide personal data at the user's convenience. Froma user's perspective, the process of registering and maintainingpersonal login identification and password becomes cumbersome.Furthermore, since each person may have multiple accounts, tracking andmanaging such account information can be problematic.

Several problems arise as user's create accounts with numerous web sitesand web services. First, it may become difficult to remember all of thevarious account usernames, especially for the sites which automaticallyassign an account username to each new user. For example, a user whoseactual name is John A. Smith may be assigned an account username of“jasmith99X2”, or even an account username including a variation of adomain name, such as “jasmith99x2<@>hypothetical_isp<.com>”. (Due to theU.S. patent restrictions from including browser-executable code, such asactual domain names, we will use throughout this disclosure left andright bracket characters “<” and “>” to mark such text to prevent itfrom being executed by a web browser. But, in reading this disclosure,these bracket characters can be ignored.) In this example, a seeminglyrandom set of characters has been added to an abbreviation of the user'sactual name in order to distinguish it from the pre-existing accountusernames already established with the service. So, a single user mayaccumulate a large number of assigned account usernames from a varietyof services, such as “jasmith99x2”, “johns321a”, “jas1441qqr”, etc.

Some web sites, though, allow a user to select or pick his or her ownaccount username, which leads to two problems. If the user's preferredaccount username is a common selection, the user may resort toexperimenting with many variations of his or her preferred account username until an available name is found. This often leads to the same typeof variation of account username as just discussed (e.g. a string ofcharacters related to the preferred name concatenated with somedistinguishing characters).

But, if the user's preferred name is available, a second problem mayarise in that the user may, and often does, select the same accountusername he or she has for one or more other web services. For example,if our example user John A. Smith has a fairly uncommon middle name,perhaps Arsenio, he may be able to select this as his account usernameon a number of unrelated web site accounts. While this is moreconvenient for the user in that it is easier to remember the accountnames, it presents a security risk to the user if the account usernameis ever compromised. For example, consider John Arsenio Smith creates anonlinebanking account with www<.>bigbank<.>com with an account usernameof “jarsenios”. It can be expected that the bank's online account systemwould be highly secure and hacker-safe. However, if this user alsocreates a personal travel planning account with www<.>cheaptrips<.>com,and selects the same account username of “jasrsenios”. This web siteoperator, however, may not consider their services to warrant strongprotection from hackers, and may not even employ secure login proceduressuch as Secure Socket Layer (“SSL”), Secure Hyper Text Transfer Protocol(“HTTPS”), or Public Key Infrastructure (“PKI”) technologies. This mayexpose the user's favorite account username during login to snooping,which would subsequently allow another person to access the user'sonline bank accounts as well as any other online services having thesame username.

Likewise, the same problems exist with passwords for online accounts. Alarge number of assigned passwords allow for greater security fromaccount to account should one of the passwords be compromised, but maybe difficult for the user to remember all of the passwords, which mayresult in the user writing or storing all of them in a common area (e.g.on a paper note in a desk drawer, in a note in a PDA, or in a passwordmanager file). If the repository of collected passwords is evercompromised, the user's various accounts are vulnerable to unauthorizedaccess. Conversely, the user-selected passwords will tend to fall into afew favorite values such as favorite color, spouse's or pet's name,college mascot, etc. Again, like the account username problem, if acommon password is compromised, it may allow a hacker to access morethan one account.

Therefore, there is a need in the art for a system and method forestablishing or selecting account usernames which do not have common orrecurring values, but which allows the user to avoid remembering orrecalling a wide variety of difficult to remember (e.g. non-logical)values. Additionally, there is a need in the art for this system andmethod to provide adequate security from complete compromise if thecentral repository is compromised.

Internet users are more and more sophisticated in their understanding ofhacker's techniques, and to the simple security oversights made bysoftware manufacturers, web site operator, and service providers such asbanks, utility companies, airlines, etc. Hardly a week passes where anew security flaw in a common operating system is announced, a newsuccessful virus or worm is released, a new spyware is discovered, or acompany is caught not protecting their clients' and users' personaldata, including usernames and passwords.

Additionally, many users often need to allow other people access totheir online accounts, even if for a limited purpose or time. Forexample, a manager at a company may be on a business trip, and may needto transfer some funds from an investment account to a checking account.If he or she does not have access to the Internet, he or she may call asecretary or spouse, give them the website address, their usernames andpassword, and ask for them to make the transfer online for them.

As a result, some user's expect that their passwords and even usernameswill be comprised over time, so they routinely change their passwordsand/or account usernames. Some online accounts, however, do not allowthe account username to be changed, so the user's may actually close theold account and create a new one.

This process of manually managing accounts, usernames, and passwordsthrough changes over time only accentuates the aforementioned problems.

Therefore, there is a need in the art for a system and method forestablishing or selecting account passwords which do not have common orrecurring values, but which allows the user to avoid remembering orrecalling a wide variety of difficult to remember (e.g. non-logical)values. Additionally, there is a need in the art for this system andmethod to provide adequate security from complete compromise if thecentral repository is compromised.

One attempt at solving this information management problem that existstoday is embodied in browsers such as Microsoft's™ Internet Explorer™(“IE”), which “remembers” all the text which a user has typed previouslyinto web forms. This data is then shown in a drop-down menue when a userenters his/her registration information, but the user must select whichdata to use if multiple data exists. In addition, the drop-down data mayinclude information previously entered by other users of the samecomputer, which leads to a potential security lapse. Furthermore, theuser still has the problem of managing multiple account login data in apotentially insecure fashion.

Other known attempts at solving this problem includes Google's™“AutoFill” technology, and similar processes. These processes aredesigned to automatically complete web forms, including login screens,but actually have numerous limitations upon closer analysis. Firstly, auser's personal information is stored on each user's local computer,with their corresponding security issues and convenience limitations(e.g. the user's data input originally on one computer would not beavailable when the user logs in from another computer). Secondly,AutoFill requires web page authors to define field names using theElectronic Commerce Modeling Language (“ECML”) standard, and currentlythere are only limited fields that AutoFill can complete. As a result,most registration and log in pages today are not compatible. AutoFill isalso not National Language Support (“NLS”) enabled, as it only supportsEnglish at this time.

The problem outlined has created much frustration and inconvenience, andsome users have actually created data repository, such as a Lotus™Notes™ database, to help handle this problem. However, this method has anumber of drawbacks, including dependency on a computationally-intensiveapplication (e.g. Lotus Notes), and laborious manual steps beingrequired to input the information. Additionally, such methods lackbrowser integration to automatically record filled data or fill forms,ability for fast search or selective view on relevant data based on theform, as well as convenient user interfaces to enable user to performform fill tasks quickly. FIG. 1 provides a screen shot (3) of a portionof a computer display (2) upon which a typical user's local Notesdatabase with over 900 sets (4) of account usernames (e.g. “IDs”) (5)and passwords (6). FIG. 1 only shows entries for the letter “A” withpassword column (6) collapsed.

Therefore, there is a need for a system and method to address theforegoing problems and limitations of the existing art in a manner whichprovides more convenience to a user who has a plurality of account andweb site usernames and passwords, and who repetitiously registers fornew accounts and profiles online. There further exists a need in the artfor this new system and method to provide ample security to avoidreusing portions of username and password strings in multiple loginparameters, without causing great inconvenience to the user to rememberor record a variety of greatly disparate login parameter values.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The following detailed description when taken in conjunction with thefigures presented herein present a complete description of the presentinvention.

FIG. 1 shows an example database that a user may build or configure tostore his or her many account usernames and passwords.

FIG. 2 illustrates our Flowing Pop-up menu user interface.

FIG. 3 provides an example Master Cookie File according to the presentinvention.

FIG. 4 depicts a generalized computing platform architecture, such as apersonal computer, server computer, personal digital assistant,web-enabled wireless telephone, or other processor-based device.

FIG. 5 shows a generalized organization of software and firmwareassociated with the generalized architecture of FIG. 4.

FIG. 6 illustrates a logical process according to the invention for thebase functions of the invention.

FIG. 7 provides more details for a logical process according to theinvention to provide a new Floating Pop-up Menu.

FIG. 8 depicts a logical process according to the invention forassisting the user or autonomously selecting new values for registrationwith online accounts and services.

FIG. 9 provides details of a logical process according to the inventionfor mapping a user's favorite form values to site-specific oraccount-specific values.

FIG. 10 shows details of a logical process according to the inventionfor automatically detecting changes to a user's registered information,and automatically updating that information with other online accountsand web sites.

FIG. 11 illustrates a logical process according to the invention forautomatically managing and/or forcing expiration of registered values.

FIG. 12 shows details of a logical process according to the inventionfor sharing fragments or portions of MCF between users to allow one userto provide account access to another user.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a server storage option, in addition to alocal storage option, which allows a user quick personal data retrievalfor application to any registration sites or any input fields such aslog in forms, new account set up forms, etc. The invention works withany natural language (e.g. English as well as non-English), and userscan customize their own entries and store any information they likewithout dependency on web page authors.

This invention consists of a method and process for a user to keep alocal or server storage file of his or her own registration information,such as usernames and passwords, optionally encrypted or compressed forsecurity or storage optimization purposes. A flowing pop-up menu isprovided next to a registration form, or at each specific field in theform, thereby allowing the user to quickly select the desired value fromthe stored personal information, and to easily fill in germaneinformation in the form. The user can also easily enable/disable thisfunction by a right-mouse click (or otherwise indicate disablement) onthe input field of the form.

When the user visits a registration web page requiring information,known fields will be automatically populated by the invention throughprompting the user for confirmation on validity of the data. The data iscorrelated to attributes (URL, web page title, IP, form object, etc.)and stored in a personal information repository to track informationprovided to registration site.

Besides the convenient and configurable flowing pop-up menu, the presentinvention differs from existing form-fillers such as Google AutoFillbecause users do not need to input information ahead of time. Further,the invention does not require web pages to be created or encoded usinga standard language, such as the sparsely-used ECML standard.

To further enhance the ease of logging into a web site, the presentinvention provides a Master Cookie File which allows the user to map hisor her preferred username and password to a plurality of usernames andpasswords which are registered with a plurality of accounts andwebsites. During a log in process, the user is prompted to enter his orher preferred or universal username and password, which is then mappedby the invention to a specific username and password for the relevantweb site, and the invention submits these specific parameters to thewebsite to accomplish the login such that the user is not inconveniencedto remember a plurality of login names and passwords.

According to one advanced aspect of the present invention, the inventionremembers the web sites where a user has set up accounts in the past,and when the user changes personal information for one web site oraccount, the invention automatically updates the user's information atthe other accounts and web sites. This allows the user to keep his orher registration information current with multiple accounts and websites without having to log into each account and manually make thechanges.

According to another advanced aspect of the present invention, duringinitial registration for a new online account, the inventionalgorithmically suggests or automatically selects alternate username andpassword values to assist the user in employing a greater variety oflogin and authentication parameters. Most users will repetitiously usevariations of predictable strings, such as their name, their pets name,etc., especially when their preferred login parameters are not available(e.g. they are already taken by other users of the same web site or theydo not meet certain criteria such as minimum length). Thus, the presentinvention enhances security for the user by employing a greater varietyof usernames and passwords, thereby making it difficult for anunauthorized user to access more than one account if the accountparameters for one account are compromised.

According to another advanced aspect of the present invention, the usermay specify an expiration period for each mapped password and usernamefor a specific account or web site. The invention then automaticallyupdates or changes the password and/or username prior to expiration ofthe existing username and password, and updates its own mapping so thatthe user can continue to use his or her own preferred username andpassword while having the invention map it to specific usernames andpasswords for specific web sites automatically and transparently.

According to another advanced aspect of the present invention, themethod provides for a temporary password and username mapping such thatthe user can create a password and username to give to another person(e.g. a secretary or assistant). The invention “shares” a portion of theuser's Master Cookie File with a temporary user's Master Cookie File,and when the temporary user attempts to log into the web site, theinvention maps the temporary username and password to the real user'susername and password to accomplish log in without divulging the realuser's log in parameters to the temporary user. If the user has selectedan expiration time or date, the invention will cease to provide themapping after the expiration date or time has been reached, therebydisabling the temporary or guest user's ability to log into the user'saccount(s).

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

In order to address the problems described in the foregoing paragraphs,the present invention provides a new solution for automatic form fillingusing the following general logical functions which will be described infurther detail in the following paragraphs:

-   -   (a) the invention creates a Master Cookie File (“MCF”) for        storage of personal information and mappings from preferred        login parameters to web-site-specific and account-specific login        parameters, instead of tracking multiple cookies for individual        web pages (URLs) in wholly separate cookie files such as is        performed by many web browsers of the current technology;    -   (b) the logical functions of the present invention are embodied        preferably as a plug-in to a web browser program, such as IE or        Netscape's Navigator™, which keeps site-specific and        account-specific cookies for ID and password tags (either HTML,        XML, etc.) and them in the MCF;    -   (c) other stored tags optionally include account number tags and        other information, also stored in the MCF, which are used by the        plug-in to update a plurality of registrations at a plurality of        web sites, as well as assists in form filling during        registration of a new account; and    -   (d) optionally, the user may define other tags which he or she        repetitiously must complete, such as broker registration number        for certified securities or stock broker.

The present invention, therefore, provides a number of advantages to theuser as compared to currently—available technologies, tools andtechniques:

-   -   (1) the invention allows a user to easily manage multiple        registration information and login unique identifiers;    -   (2) the invention maps a user's favorite or preferred username        and password to a plurality of account-specific and        web-site-specific usernames and passwords to allow the user the        convenience of using the same login parameters across many        accounts and sites without the security risk of actually doing        so;    -   (3) the invention provides centralized storage for user to track        and manage multiple accounts; and    -   (4) the invention automatically checks to verify usage of the        user's latest and most up-to-date registration information, and        can optionally automatically update other accounts when        information changes;        Suitable Computing Platform for Realization of the Invention

The invention is preferably realized as a feature or addition to thesoftware already found present on well-known computing platforms such aspersonal computers, web servers, and web browsers. These commoncomputing platforms can include personal computers as well as portablecomputing platforms, such as personal digital assistants (“PDA”),web-enabled wireless telephones, and other types of personal informationmanagement (“PIM”) devices.

Therefore, it is useful to review a generalized architecture of acomputing platform which may span the range of implementation, from ahigh-end web or enterprise server platform, to a personal computer, to aportable PDA or web-enabled wireless phone.

Turning to FIG. 4, a generalized architecture is presented including acentral processing unit (41) (“CPU”), which is typically comprised of amicroprocessor (42) associated with random access memory (“RAM”) (44)and read-only memory (“ROM”) (45). Often, the CPU (41) is also providedwith cache memory (43) and programmable FlashROM (46). The interface(47) between the microprocessor (42) and the various types of CPU memoryis often referred to as a “local bus”, but also may be a more generic orindustry standard bus.

Many computing platforms are also provided with one or more storagedrives (49), such as hard-disk drives (“HDD”), floppy disk drives,compact disc drives (CD, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD, DVD-R, etc.), and proprietarydisk and tape drives (e.g., Iomega Zip™ and Jaz™, Addonics SuperDisk™,etc.). Additionally, some storage drives may be accessible over acomputer network.

Many computing platforms are provided with one or more communicationinterfaces (410), according to the function intended of the computingplatform. For example, a personal computer is often provided with a highspeed serial port (RS-232, RS-422, etc.), an enhanced parallel port(“EPP”), and one or more universal serial bus (“USB”) ports. Thecomputing platform may also be provided with a local area network(“LAN”) interface, such as an Ethernet card, and other high-speedinterfaces such as the High Performance Serial Bus IEEE-1394.

Computing platforms such as wireless telephones and wireless networkedPDA's may also be provided with a radio frequency (“RF”) interface withantenna, as well. In some cases, the computing platform may be providedwith an infrared data arrangement (IrDA) interface, too.

Computing platforms are often equipped with one or more internalexpansion slots (411), such as Industry Standard Architecture (“ISA”),Enhanced Industry Standard Architecture (“EISA”), Peripheral ComponentInterconnect (“PCI”), or proprietary interface slots for the addition ofother hardware, such as sound cards, memory boards, and graphicsaccelerators.

Additionally, many units, such as laptop computers and PDA's, areprovided with one or more external expansion slots (412) allowing theuser the ability to easily install and remove hardware expansiondevices, such as PCMCIA cards, SmartMedia cards, and various proprietarymodules such as removable hard drives, CD drives, and floppy drives.

Often, the storage drives (49), communication interfaces (410), internalexpansion slots (411) and external expansion slots (412) areinterconnected with the CPU (41) via a standard or industry open busarchitecture (48), such as ISA, EISA, or PCI. In many cases, the bus(48) may be of a proprietary design.

A computing platform is usually provided with one or more user inputdevices, such as a keyboard or a keypad (416), and mouse or pointerdevice (417), and/or a touch-screen display (418). In the case of apersonal computer, a full size keyboard is often provided along with amouse or pointer device, such as a track ball or TrackPoint™. In thecase of a web-enabled wireless telephone, a simple keypad may beprovided with one or more function-specific keys. In the case of a PDA,a touch-screen (418) is usually provided, often with handwritingrecognition capabilities.

Additionally, a microphone (419), such as the microphone of aweb-enabled wireless telephone or the microphone of a personal computer,is supplied with the computing platform. This microphone may be used forsimply reporting audio and voice signals, and it may also be used forentering user choices, such as voice navigation of web sites orauto-dialing telephone numbers, using voice recognition capabilities.

Many computing platforms are also equipped with a camera device (4100),such as a still digital camera or full motion video digital camera.

One or more user output devices, such as a display (413), are alsoprovided with most computing platforms. The display (413) may take manyforms, including a Cathode Ray Tube (“CRT”), a Thin Flat Transistor(“TFT”) array, or a simple set of light emitting diodes (“LED”) orliquid crystal display (“LCD”) indicators.

One or more speakers (414) and/or annunciators (415) are oftenassociated with computing platforms, too. The speakers (414) may be usedto reproduce audio and music, such as the speaker of a wirelesstelephone or the speakers of a personal computer. Annunciators (415) maytake the form of simple beep emitters or buzzers, commonly found oncertain devices such as PDAs and PIMs.

These user input and output devices may be directly interconnected (48′,48″) to the CPU (41) via a proprietary bus structure and/or interfaces,or they may be interconnected through one or more industry open busessuch as ISA, EISA, PCI, etc. The computing platform is also providedwith one or more software and firmware (4101) programs to implement thedesired functionality of the computing platforms.

Turning to now FIG. 5, more detail is given of a generalizedorganization of software and firmware (4101) on this range of computingplatforms. One or more operating system (“OS”) native applicationprograms (53) may be provided on the computing platform, such as wordprocessors, spreadsheets, contact management utilities, address book,calendar, email client, presentation, financial and bookkeepingprograms.

Additionally, one or more “portable” or device-independent programs (54)may be provided, which must be interpreted by an OS-nativeplatform-specific interpreter (55), such as Java™ scripts and programs.

Often, computing platforms are also provided with a form of web browseror micro-browser (56), which may also include one or more extensions tothe browser such as browser plug-ins (57).

The computing device is often provided with an operating system (50),such as Microsoft Windows™, UNIX, IBM OS/2™, LINUX, MAC OS™ or otherplatform specific operating systems. Smaller devices such as PDA's andwireless telephones may be equipped with other forms of operatingsystems such as real-time operating systems (“RTOS”) or Palm Computing'sPalmOS™.

A set of basic input and output functions (“BIOS”) and hardware devicedrivers (51) are often provided to allow the operating system (50) andprograms to interface to and control the specific hardware functionsprovided with the computing platform.

Additionally, one or more embedded firmware programs (52) are commonlyprovided with many computing platforms, which are executed by onboard or“embedded” microprocessors as part of the peripheral device, such as amicro controller or a hard drive, a communication processor, networkinterface card, or sound or graphics card.

As such, FIGS. 4 and 5 describe in a general sense the various hardwarecomponents, software and firmware programs of a wide variety ofcomputing platforms, including but not limited to personal computers,PDAs, PIMs, web-enabled telephones, and other appliances such as WebTV™units. As such, we now turn our attention to disclosure of the presentinvention relative to the processes and methods preferably implementedas software and firmware on such a computing platform. It will bereadily recognized by those skilled in the art that the followingmethods and processes may be alternatively realized as hardwarefunctions, in part or in whole, without departing from the spirit andscope of the invention.

Base Logical Processes of the Invention

Turning now to FIG. 6, a first logical process according to theinvention is illustrated, wherein a generalized form is filled by a userwith assistance from the invention. The invention (or the main webbrowser code) constantly monitors the displayed information to the user.When a form is being displayed (61), which can be detected by the HTMLcoded into the currently displayed page, the MCF (63) is searched (62)to find any previous entries from other websites or the same websitecorresponding to any of the fields in the currently-displayed form.

If any are found (64), then as the user moves from field to field (65),the flowing pop-up (“FPU”) display or menu (66) is provided nearby eachfield while the user has pointed to or moved into each field. If theuser selects (69) an item from the FPU, this value is entered (68) bythe invention into the field where the user is pointing, or where thecursor is currently located.

If the user moves to another field (601) without making a selection fromthe FPU, the FPU is updated with values matching the new field's tagfrom the MCF, if one is found.

If the user manually inputs a new value in a form field, the inventiondetects this new value (602), and adds that form tag and the new valueinto the MCF, preferably along with an indication that this isassociated with the current account or web site where the currentlydisplayed page resides.

Turning now to FIG. 7, more details of the logical process (66) of theflowing pop-up menu are provided. In appearance to the user, the FPUmenu works similarly to what is known in the art as “flyover informationboxes”. When the user clicks or tabs into a form field, or moves thepointer over the form field, the menu is automatically displayed nearthe field and overlaid on the current screen contents. As the user movesaway from the field, the FPU is removed and the display is returned tonormal, unless another FPU menu for another field is displayed.

In practice, however, fly over information boxes contain staticinformation usually programmed into the application program with fixedvalues, such as explanations of what an icon does. In the presentinvention, this is not suitable as the information to be displayedvaries from user to user, site to site, and field to field, based uponthe contents of the user's MCF. So, according to our process, when thecursor or pointer is over or in a form field (71), a small menu isdisplayed (72) near or adjacent to the field containing the MCF valueswhich are associated primarily with the same web site or account, andwith the form field tag (e.g. username, account number, password,telephone number, etc.). If no entry for the current web site, URL oraccount exists in the MCF, then one or more entries for the same tagfrom other web sites, URLs or accounts is shown in the menu. Preferably,all matching entries or values are shown, with the one for the currentweb site or URL highlighted, placed first in the list, or otherwisedisplayed more prominently than the other choices.

The process then waits for the user to select an entry from the FPU, orto move away from the field. If a selection is made (74), the selectedvalue is returned to the main assistant logic (68), and the process ends(75), and the FPU is preferably removed from the display.

If the user moves the pointer or cursor away from the field withoutmaking a selection, the FPU is removed (75) from the display.

In practice, the FPU can be displayed and/or removed using a quickoverlay (e.g. suddenly overwriting the display), or may be done using agradual displaying technique such as a reverse-dissolve and dissolveoperation, fade operation, etc.

FIG. 2 provides an illustration (20) of one embodiment of our FPU menu,in which a registration form (21) is displayed, where the user isexpected to input a set of typical values such as first name, last name,email, address, etc. In this illustration, the user has moved the cursorinto the Address 1 field, which has resulted in the invention displayingthe FPU menu (22) along side the Address 1 field, in which all addressvalues found in the user's MCF are shown and are selectable by the user.This example display shows the user's information sorted by addressvalue, but optionally, the information can be sorted by any suitableparameter or characteristic, such as category, age of information,alphabetical order, etc.

Master Cookie File

Our Master Cookie File (“MCF”) is preferably stored by a networkedserver and associated with a particular user. This embodiment enablesthe user to use any networked computer as a client with the associatedbrowser plug-in as previously described, not just his or her ownpersonal computer. In this arrangement, the browser plug-in running onthe user's local computer would access the user's MCF on the remoteserver via a computer network, such as the Internet, preferably using asecure protocol such as secure sockets.

Alternatively, the MCF may be stored locally on the user's computer, andthe web browser plug-in is configured to access the local MCF instead ofa remotely stored MCF. Even if stored locally, our preferred embodimentincludes encryption of the MCF to prevent unauthorized access to theinformation stored therein. According to one aspect of the preferredembodiment in order to enhance security, each MCF, or optionally eachMCF entry, may self-destroy or self-deactivate at a certain time or age,following a certain amount of inactivity or nonuse, or when the userterminates a browsing session (e.g. logs out, shuts down the system,etc.). This enhancement provides for more secure use in environments andsituations where the MCF is temporarily stored or cached on a computer.

For ease of understanding, FIG. 3 provides an example MCF (1200),wherein information is stored in association with a user (1201), a website or account, and various form tags. This example MCF also includes afavorite username and password (1202) for the enhanced mapping functionof the invention, which is part of an optional embodiment and isdescribed in more detail in the following paragraphs.

The MCF information may be encoded in any digital or computer-readableformat is required, such as into a format of a cookie or other digitalfile. We have shown a mark-up language example here, but other suitableformats may be employed as well. In this example, the owner of the MCFis shown as “Bob Smith” (1201), and his favorite username and favoritepasswords are “bobsimth” and “mydogspot” (1202). Mr. Smith has anaccount online with “abctravel” (1203), where his username is“bsmith14yz” and password is “goplaces”, and where he has registered hishome address and telephone number.

Mr. Smith also has an online account with his bank (1204), “xyz-bank”,where his account number is 19932454-5, his username is “bobmsm99”, andhis password is “mychecking”. He has also registered his home addresswith this account, as well as the invention has recorded the URL of thepage where he can update his personal information. This last bit ofinformation can be used by another optional embodiment of the invention,wherein the invention automatically updates all of Mr. Smith's personalaccount information for him when one or more items change, as describedin more detail later.

Additionally, Mr. Smith has an account with a “mystocks” websiteservice, where his username is “bobbysmith”, his password is “nojunk”,his home address is registered, and he has input stock ticker symbols ofinterest for International Business Machines, Johnson & Johnson, andExxon-Mobil. He has also entered keywords for headline searchs of“nanotechnology” and “retirement”.

As shown in this example, the MCF may include a plurality of cookies orentries for many more accounts (more or less than shown in thisexample). As previously described, when the user Bob Smith accesses aweb page which has a form in it, the MCF is searched first for matchingentries for the specific URL or web site, and second for matching formtags. As such, these pre-recorded form field values can be retrievedfrom the MCF and presented to Mr. Smith in the flowing pop-up window aspreviously described.

Value Selection Assistant

Turning now to FIG. 8, our logical process (80) of one optional aspectof the invention is shown. This aspect need not be present in allembodiments of the invention, but is highly useful for relieving theuser of the burden of remembering or using a plurality of differentusernames and passwords.

For example, when our hypothetical user “Bob Smith” establishes his newaccount with ABC-Travel, he may attempt to obtain (81) his favoriteusername “BobSmith”. This username may either be unavailable atABC-Travel (e.g. already taken) (82), or the invention may optionallydetect that it is a duplicate (84) of another username and presents asecurity risk, so the invention proposes (83) a site-specific usernameof “bsmith14yz” using a value generation process (83). The valuegeneration process may include a process which appends or prependspredetermined string values (e.g. birthdate, pet name, school mascot,etc.), or pseudo-random strings to the requested or preferred stringvalue to create a string which is a variant of the preferred value (asin this example), or may employ another process such as an entirelyrandom value generator or a pre-defined sequence of values.

Once an available, non-duplicate value is selected, it is recorded (85)in the MCF in association with the user and the account or website. Thisprocess can be useful for selecting a username and a password, but mayalso be employed for other user-selectable values such as screen names,buddy names, etc.

Favorite-To-Specific Mapping Function

Turning now to FIG. 9, another optional aspect of the present inventionis illustrated wherein the plurality of site-specific and accountspecific values are automatically mapped from the user's favoritevalues. When a user enters (91) a value into a form field (or selects avalue from a FPU menu), the MCF (63) is checked (93) to see if it is afavorite value (1202 from FIG. 3). If it is a favorite value, then theinvention accesses (94) the MCF to find a corresponding account-specificor site-specific value, and enters that value into the form for theuser, thereby allowing the user to remember only his or her favoritevalues but keeping the security of a plurality of different valuesacross a plurality of accounts and web sites.

As in our example for “Mr. Smith”, when he points his browser to theABC-Travel web page (referring to the MCF of FIG. 3), he may enter“bobsmith” into the username and “mydogspot” form fields to log into hisaccount. Normally, this would be rejected by the ABC-Travelauthentication process, as these are not his correct username andpassword.

However, the invention detects these entries, determines that these arefavorite values from his MCF, and substitutes them for “bsmith14yz” and“goplaces”, respectively, in the form fields. Thus, he is able to loginto his account seemingly with his favorite username and password, butwhile actually maintaining a wide variety of values across all of hisaccounts.

In another manner of use, a user may define a favorite as a form ofshort hand entry. For example, our user “Mr. Smith” has three stocks ofinterest—IBM, J&J, and Exxon-Mobile. Using the basic invention, he mayeasily select these from a FPU menu to enter them into an appropriatestock quote request form. However, he may also define a<favorite-tickers> tag in his MCF of “kids stocks” if these are stocksheld in his children's accounts, for example. Then, he can just enter“kids stock” in the ticker search form field, which will be detected bythe invention as a favorite and substituted for the string “IBM, JNJ,XOM”.

In other variations of use and embodiment of the favorite-to-mappingfunction, browsing control can be achieved similar to parental controlsand Internet firewall/gateway functions, wherein the MCF can specifyredirections to values which may be offensive, high security risk, orotherwise undesirable to actually visit. For example, a pornographic website address or URL could be mapped to an acceptable web site address(e.g. map playboy<dot>com to cnn<dot>com). In another example, a website known to download spyware or viruses can be mapped to trustworthweb site address.

Automatic Maintenance of Registered Information

In another optional and enhanced aspect of the present invention, theuser's registered information is automatically updated when theinvention detects (or is instructed) that some of the information hasbeen changed.

For example, consider Mr. Smith and his MCF of FIG. 3. His home addressis registered at three different accounts or websites as shown, and inpractice, may actually be registered at many more places (e.g. bank,investment firm, travel service, ISP and email account, online billpaying, etc.).

So, traditionally, when Mr. Smith moves his residence, he would have tovisit each of these web sites, log into each account, navigate to theappropriate account update page, enter the new address information, andsave it. While using the base invention disclosed herein would greatlyimprove this process by aiding the log in process and the form fillingprocess, according to another enhancement of the invention, this can bedone completely automatically as well.

For example, in Mr. Smith's MCF for his MyStocks account a record hasbeen made that he has updated his account information once before, andthis web page address has been recorded (see the profile-URL tag entry).As shown in FIG. 10, our logical process (1050) provides that when Mr.Smith logs into any account and either updates or registers information(91), it is compared (92, 1051, 1052) to other entries in his MCF (63).If the new value(s) do not match the older values at other accounts andwebsites, the user is prompted (1054) whether or not he or she wishesall other accounts to be updated to match this information. If answeredin the affirmative, the system then records the new values associatedwith the new or updated account, and then proceeds to automatically loginto each other account and make the appropriate value changes (1055).This is done preferably by using each accounts' recorded username,password, and profile update address from the user's MCF. Preferably, ifany account has no recorded update address in the MCF, or if any updatefails (e.g. the profile update page has moved or is non-existent), anerror report is generated to prompt the user to take manual action.Additionally, a log of successful updates is preferably generated toinform the user of all accounts which were successfully updated.

Automatic Value Expiration Management

Similar to the automatic registered information update functionalitypreviously described, our invention also preferably includes an optionallogical process to manage or force the expiration of values, especially,but not limited to, passwords. When a user is creating a new accountonline, he or she is often informed that the account will force anexpiration of the user's password within a certain amount of time, suchas 90 days, 6 months, or a year. This usually is an effort by the website operator to maintain security, because comprised passwords willeventually expire and be replaced with new, uncompromised passwords.

In FIG. 3, an example of a notation in a MCF for an expirable parameteris shown in the password for the XYZ Bank account, wherein the passwordis set to expire on Aug. 31, 2005. This value may be set by the userwhen the password is being originally recorded during account set up, orlater by the user if the user wants to force an expiration or update.

Turning to FIG. 11, the invention with this optional embodiment feature(1100) analyzes (1101) the user's MCF (63) periodically, and preferablyat least once per day or more often depending on the resolution of theexpiration allowed for values in the MCF. For example, in an embodimentwhere expiration may be specified in terms of minutes, hours, and days,the analysis should be performed on a minute basis, or less.

When a value is detected to be expiring, the invention preferablyprompts (1102) the user for permission to automatically update theexpiring registered value, which can then be done (1050) as described inthe foregoing paragraphs regarding automatic updates of registeredinformation. Additionally, this logical process is preferably combinedwith the previously described automatic value selection assistant (80)to select a new, available and non-duplicate value, and combined withthe previously described mapping function to allow the user to continueto use his or her favorite corresponding value.

Sharing of MCF Fragments

In another aspect of the present invention, fragments or portions of auser's MCF may be shared with another user, which is especially usefulwhen both users are using web browsers equipped with the plug-ins forthe base logical processes of the invention. For example, as illustratedin FIG. 12, consider a situation where a project team member, Bob Smith,has established an online account with a particular research or searchservice, Account A (1205). Now, Bob Smith wishes to allow another teammember to use his account, but does not wish to actually share hisusername and password. As such, Bob can select from a user interfacemenu the account records (63′″) (or internal MCF cookie) from his MCF(63) to share (1201) with the second user, perhaps Julie.

This cookie or set of records (63′″) is then preferably encrypted (e.g.using Public Key Infrastructure or other suitable technology) by theplug-in in Bob's web browser, and transmitted (1201) to the plug-in inJulie's web browser, where it is stored in Julie's MCF (63′). There, itallows Julie to log into (1203) Bob's account (1205) through theaforementioned mapping function (1202) (e.g. mapping Julie's favoriteusername and password to Bob's account-specific username and password).

In a server-based embodiment where the MCF's for users are stored innetworked server, the sharing operation may not require encryption as itmay simply be a data copy within the memory of the server.

Preferably, the expiration feature of the invention is also employed sothat Bob can control how long Julie can use the account access, eitherthrough Bob's plug-in automatically changing (1204) the shared password,or through Julie's plug-in ignoring or disabling the mapping after theexpiration date or time.

According to another optional aspect of the present invention, the ownerof the shared MCF records may specify sharing by website or proprietorname, such as sharing only the owner's FedEx™ shipping account or onlythe owner's Amazon.com™ account.

Examples of Operation and Use

To further facilitate the understanding of the present invention, thefollowing examples of use and operation are presented and discussed. Inour first example, without the current invention, if Amy wants to manageher banking, electricity and credit card accounts online, she must pointher web browser to multiple company websites to register herself as anuser. Then, Amy repeatedly enters her personal data such as Name,Address, Account Number, Phone, etc. Furthermore, Amy must test againsteach company's website to make sure her login ID is unique and passwordis valid. As such, without the current invention, Amy spends extensivetime and energy for the registration processes, and Amy also has toremember her ID information either on paper, PDA, file, etc.

With the present invention, however, Amy can first registers herselfonline with her bank. During her registration process, the inventionbuilds a set of records in Amy's MCF for her bank account, including herregistered personal information (e.g. name, address, telephone number,password, etc.). Later, as Amy begins to register online with theelectric company for her second account, the present invention checks toverify if Amy is already a member (e.g. does her MCF contain records forthe electric company already). If not, Amy can allow the presentinvention to automatically populate her personal information at theelectricity website, which is taken from her MCF records for her bankaccount. The invention also builds another set of records in Amy's MCFfor her electric account, too. Later, as Amy registers her four creditcard accounts, the invention facilitates the process similarly, andsignificantly reduces the time spent so Amy can manage her accounts in amore efficient manner. Furthermore, this invention tracks Amy's logininformation so Amy does not have to remember her account-specific memberIDs and passwords, mapping them to her favorite username and password sothat she can log in to any of the accounts easily and conveniently.

In our second example scenario, six months later Amy has moved and herelectric company has changed. Without the invention, Amy would have tolog into each and every online account she has (e.g. bank, electriccompany, four credit cards, etc.), and manually change her address andprobably her telephone number. However, with the invention, Amy goesonline and registers at a new energy company, which is detected by theinvention. Using her MCF, the invention can automatically populate herinformation into the forms to register with the new electric company,and can also log into all of her existing accounts to update her addressand telephone number. The process of the present can be run and managedin the background and further automated if registration site offersstandard and flexible interfaces such as Web Services, including requestto open/close/update account.

CONCLUSION

The present invention has been described in terms of severalembodiments, including embodiment enhancement and options. It will berecognized by those skilled in the art that these embodiments, however,do not represent the scope of the invention, and that it is within theskill of those in the art to realize the invention in other forms, withor without the disclosed enhancements, without departing from the spiritand scope of the present invention. Therefore, the scope of theinvention should be determined by the following claims.

1. A system for automatically completing passwords in online forms,comprising: a tangible, computer-readable storage memory device; aprocessor; a Master File stored in the tangible, computer-readablestorage memory device, in which are disposed at least two sets ofrecords and one or more registered values, the record sets beingassociated with a user and at least one other identifier selected fromthe group consisting of an account identifier, a web site identifier,and a universal resource locator, wherein the one or more recordedregistered values are associated with one or more field tags in one ormore online forms; a user-designated favorite password value disposed ina record in the Master File; program instructions, stored on thetangible, computer-readable storage memory device for execution by theprocessor, responsive to a user entering the user-designated favoritepassword value into a specific field of an online form, to extract acorresponding specific password value from the Master File associatedwith an account, web site or universal resource locator as identified bythe online form, and to input the specific value into the specific fieldof an online form, thereby substituting the user-entered favoritepassword value for the specific password value in the specific field ofthe online form; and program instructions, stored on the tangible,computer-readable storage memory device for execution by the processor,responsive to failing to extract a specific password value from theMaster File, to generate an alternate password value for proposition tothe user for disposing in the Master File, and to automatically enterthe alternate password value into the specific field of an online form.2. The system as set forth in claim 1 further comprising programinstructions, stored on the tangible, computer-readable storage memorydevice for execution by the processor, to utilize a pseudo-random valuegenerator to create the alternate password value proposition.
 3. Thesystem as set forth in claim 1 further comprising program instructions,stored on the tangible, computer-readable storage memory device forexecution by the processor, to append a pseudo-random value to apreviously used password value.
 4. The system as set forth in claim 1further comprising program instructions, stored on the tangible,computer-readable storage memory device for execution by the processor,to utilize a predefined value sequence.
 5. The system as set forth inclaim 1 further comprising program instructions, stored on the tangible,computer-readable storage memory device for execution by the processor,to append an entry from a predefined value sequence to a previously usedpassword value.
 6. A method for automatically completing passwords inonline forms, comprising: providing by a computer a Master File storedin a tangible, computer-readable storage memory device, in which aredisposed at least two sets of records and one or more registered values,the record sets being associated with a user and at least one otheridentifier selected from the group consisting of an account identifier,a web site identifier, and a universal resource locator, wherein the oneor more recorded registered values are associated with one or more fieldtags in one or more online forms; disposing by a computer auser-designated favorite password value in a record in the Master File;responsive to a user entering the user-designated favorite passwordvalue into a specific field of an online form, extracting by a computera corresponding specific password value from the Master File associatedwith an account, web site or universal resource locator as identified bythe online form, and inputting by a computer the specific value into thespecific field of the online form, thereby substituting the user-enteredfavorite password value for the specific password value in the specificfield of the online form; and responsive to failing to extract aspecific password value from the Master File, generating by a computeran alternate password value for proposition to the user for disposing inthe Master File and automatically entering the alternate password valueinto the specific field of an online form.
 7. The method as set forth inclaim 6 further comprising utilizing by a computer a pseudo-random valuegenerator to create the alternate password value proposition.
 8. Themethod as set forth in claim 7 further comprising appending by acomputer a pseudo-random value to a previously used password value. 9.The method as set forth in claim 6 further comprising utilizing by acomputer a value from a predefined value sequence.
 10. The method as setforth in claim 9 wherein the predefined value sequence is appended to apreviously used password value.
 11. A computer program product forautomatically completing password fields in online forms, comprising: atangible, computer-readable storage memory device; a Master File storedin the tangible, computer-readable storage memory device; at least twosets of records disposed and one or more registered values disposed inthe Master File, the record sets being associated with a user, anaccount or a web site, the one or more recorded registered valuesassociated with one or more online form tags; a user-designated favoritepassword value disposed in a record in the Master File; programinstructions, stored on the tangible, computer-readable storage memorydevice for execution by a processor, responsive to a user entering theuser-designated favorite password value into a specific field of anonline form, to extract a corresponding specific password value from theMaster File associated with an account, web site or universal resourcelocator as identified by the online form, and to input the specificvalue into the specific field of an online form, thereby substitutingthe user-entered favorite password value for the specific password valuein the specific field of the online form; and program instructions,stored on the tangible, computer-readable storage memory device forexecution by a processor, responsive to failing to extract a specificpassword value from the Master File, to generate an alternate passwordvalue for proposition to the user for disposing in the Master File, andto automatically enter the alternate password value into the specificfield of an online form.
 12. The computer program product as set forthin claim 11 further comprising program instructions, stored on thetangible, computer-readable storage memory device to utilize apseudo-random value generator to create the alternate password valueproposition.
 13. The computer program product as set forth in claim 11further comprising program instructions, stored on the tangible,computer-readable storage memory device to append a pseudo-random valueto a previously used password value.
 14. The computer program product asset forth in claim 11 further comprising program instructions, stored onthe tangible, computer-readable storage memory device to use a valuefrom a predefined value sequence.
 15. The computer program product asset forth in claim 14 wherein the predefined value sequence is appendedto a previously used password value.